Dear Family,Well, it is time again to sit down and summarize somewhat the events of the past month. There was not a lot of exciting things that I can mention, but we did have one little incident that might be of interest. I was going to tell about it in my January letter, but thought I ought to warn Mom before so she would not have a heart attack, because it could have been serious, although now looking back it was more funny than serious.
The morning of January 7th I awakened early at about 4:30 and could not go back to sleep. I got up and went to the bathroom and then laid back down, but could not go to sleep. Finally at about 5:30 I got up, got dressed and went out in the family room, turned on the TV and turned it to Fox news. I was hoping to sit there for a while and then get tired enough that I could snooze, but that did not happen. (Getting up was a blessing… as you will read.)
I had only been sitting down for a few minutes when I heard the doorbell ring. It rang and rang repeatedly for several seconds and it really startled me. We live in what I consider to be a very safe and secure neighborhood and there has never been any serious problems close to our home. But immediately my thoughts went to the TV news reports of “old” folks being broken in to by intruders that did bad things. I got up, went to the front door and looked through the peep-hole to see what I could see. What I saw was what appeared to be a man standing on our front lawn looking up at our roof. As I was trying to put things together in my head about what was going on, the fellow came back to the door and just pounded repeatedly very hard on the door with his fist. So by then I had it figured out that something was wrong, so I opened the door and it was our neighbor Brian, two doors to the West. He told me he was on his way to work and noticed that I had a chimney fire. I went out on the lawn and looked up, and sure enough, there were flames coming out of the top of the chimney about 6 inches are so. I ran back into the house and shut down the damper on the fireplace insert, and went back out to see what that did to the fire. The fire had almost gone out of site, but there were still sparks coming out. I noticed that Brian was talking to someone on the telephone and I soon came to realize that he had called 911, and was talking to a woman dispatcher telling her about the chimney fire and giving our address. I do not think that I would have called the fire department, so I was a little irritated that now we had fire trucks on their way to our home at 5:45 in the morning. Brian gave the phone to me and told me that the lady at the other end of the line wanted to talk to me. She asked me if everyone was out of the house. I told her that I did not think that was necessary, but she gave me very strict instructions that I MUST get everyone out.
Backing up a little, Heather had heard the doorbell and had looked out the window and saw “the man” standing on our lawn looking at the top of our roof, looking really panicked. She did not know that I was up so she threw pulled on a t-shirt and then heard the man pounding on the door and thought, “no time for pants”! She started running out the bedroom, when she heard me open the door and all that she heard was that we had a “chimney fire”. She did not have a clue what a chimney fire was, and for all she knew the whole house could have been on fire. She turned on the bedroom light and yelled at Jay that we had a chimney fire! She put on pants and ran outside and looked up and saw the flames coming out of the top of the brick chimney. I told her that the 911 dispatcher had told me that I had to get everyone out of the house. So she ran in to their bedroom only to find Jay still asleep. She asked Jay ‘’Jay, did you not hear what I said” and his reply “No”. She then told him again about the chimney fire and this time he got up. She then went in and grabbed Gwen out of her crib and Jay grabbed the car keys and they headed outside. They moved their Subaru and parked it in our cul-de-sac so Gwen could keep warm. Judy joined them and they watched the fire trucks pull up to the house and waited until things were clear.
Now Judy Lynn was another matter. When the dispatcher insisted that I get everyone out of the house, I went into our bedroom, woke Judy Lynn up and told her that we had a chimney fire, the fire department was on its way, and I was to get everyone out of the house. Her response, “You mean I have to get up?” From this point I should have Judy Lynn tell her story, because it is quite funny (now). She got out of bed, went in to the walk-in closet and got dressed, taking time to think, “I had better put on warm clothing, oh yes, better put on socks… I wonder which shoes, oh and I better take a bottle of water”, etc. etc. etc. It was like she was in slow-motion. I had gone in to the hall and got her a coat and gave it to her as she walked out the door. The time that it took her, the whole house could have burned down.
It took quite a while (15 minutes or more) for the fire trucks to get here (two of them with their horns and sirens blaring!)… and I don’t understand why because the fire station is very close. (I guess we must have got them out of bed too!) Well, I was really embarrassed, and by this time flames could not be seen and only occasionally would you see a spark. Three firemen came across the grass and I told them I thought things were okay. They walked in to the family room and pointed this gun-looking thing up near the roof around the brick face going up through the ceiling. Then one of them asked if there was access to the attic, so I took him out to the garage and he climbed into the attic turned on the lights and walked over to the chimney coming from the room ceiling and then on up through the roof. He pointed his little heat-sensing thingy around and then came back down. And as they were all walking very nonchalantly out the door, just turned and said, “keep an eye on it” and they left, fire trucks and all. It was all over and done with in about five minutes after they arrived.
Now I certainly do not want to minimize the seriousness of what a chimney fire could do. I have heard some very sad stories. But when we build our home in 1974, they build us a very well-build fireplace, with chimneys made of solid brick, with very thick brick on the outside and the clay-fired chimney lining on the inside all the way up through the roof. So the only way that I thought a fire could get out of control would be for the sparks to land on the roof and start the roof on fire. But when we re-roofed our home a few years ago we had flame-retardant shingles put on, so in the wet winter weather we have up here, starting them on fire would be somewhat difficult.
During the winter, we get most of our heat from our wood fires in our fireplace insert, but it was a day two before I built a fire in the insert again, so on came the furnace for those few days. I called the next day and got a chimney-cleaning company out and they gave it a good cleaning. I had never had it cleaned professionally, so it was about time.
Left: Insert removed from fireplace so cleaning could take place.
Right: All the crud that had fallen to the bottom of the fireplace that needed to be cleaned up.
(Probably should not have shown that second picture... it looks like it needed cleaning!!)
Out of the experience we learned two things. First, I guess I ought to have the chimney cleaned more often, and second, we cannot count on Jay or Judy Lynn for speedy exits during an emergency!
So, other than that, nothing much has happened up here that is noteworthy. (Yes I know… it is somewhat like the saying “So other than that Mrs. Lincoln how did you enjoy the play?”
That’s it until next month. We send our love.
Judy Lynn and Roger
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